Infinity Sea Series - Sabres of Infinity, Guns of Infinity, Lords of Infinity - Sharpe your way through a series of CYOA books!

[Optimist]

Inspired by Lithium Flower's LP of Sabres of Infinity, I went ahead and bought the three available installments of the Infinity Series yesterday. Those were fun enough for me to play through the first two games yesterday, and wrap up the third one today, on company time.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/773/Infinity_Series/

I do not have much experience with digital CYOA stories, but I had a real blast reading/ playing through those. They were really nicely written, and the number of statistics and relations tracked by the game certainly makes it more of an RPG than a glorified VN. Across the series, you manage the life and career of an officer of Royal Dragoons, going through training, getting your first whiffs of gunpowder, and command in the first installment, only to proceed to run a war to its final stages in the second, and trying to slide into shaky peacetime in the third. It is very difficult to use any adjectives while describing the high-level story, as a number of variables related to the main character (family situation specifics, age, sides he'll support) are decided by the player, only to find reflection in the game later on. You can run a single character through the entire series, importing saves as you go along.

There are demos available for all three installments, so I encourage you to take a look at those. My only complaints would be that the first part seems to have a "best" path in mind, hidden behind a (relatively reasonable) set of stats and choices, and that the third one feels a spot too bloated, with an overwhelming amount of tracked variables and two mostly separate - and further branching - paths you can play through.

Despite seeming to mostly screw up in the Lords of Infinity (which was at least partially related to the fact that at some point I became unable to memorize names of characters and their factional belonging; didn't help that I tried to go with the route of being a mole in one of the factions) I am looking forward to the next two, planned installments.

 

[Readher]

It's certainly one of the best series from CoG/HG. I can greatly recommend "I, The Forgotten One", which comes out tomorrow. The demo was amazing (and lenghty), and I expect the full game to be as well.

Other games I recommend are Tin Star, The War for the West, The Golden Rose, The Evertree Saga, A Study in Steampunk. There are others I've enjoyed as well, but I feel as most of the people here wouldn't.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

I planned to make a thread for this once I finish the third installment, but you beat me to it. Paul Wang is a really talented author.

His earlier game Mecha Ace also blew me away. I really liked the ability to roleplay a proper warrior. My character declaring that he does not want the war to ever end, because war ennobles mankind, is still etched into my mind.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

Also, props to OP for posting this in the RPG section. Stats deeply affect how the game plays out, unlike modern RPGs where stats are just flavour (be it Skyrim, Cyberpunk, or others). Games made using the ChoiceScript can generally be classified as RPGs.

 

[Readher]

Also, props to OP for posting this in the RPG section. Stats deeply affect how the game plays out, unlike modern RPGs where stats are just flavour (be it Skyrim, Cyberpunk, or others). Games made using the ChoiceScript can generally be classified as RPGs.

It very much depends on the game, tbh. I've played a ton of CoG, HG and in-development titles, and they vary greatly in design. Some can definitely be classified as RPGs and make heavy use of stats, while others barely have any stats aside from romance flags.

If you're looking for one where stats and choices make a great difference, then "I, The Forgotten One" definitely fits. There's a ton of reactivity depending on your gender, looks, military background, choices during battles and diplomatic events, etc.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

It very much depends on the game, tbh. I've played a ton of CoG, HG and in-development titles, and they vary greatly in design. Some can definitely be classified as RPGs and make heavy use of stats, while others barely have any stats aside from romance flags.

If you're looking for one where stats and choices make a great difference, then "I, The Forgotten One" definitely fits. There's a ton of reactivity depending on your gender, looks, military background, choices during battles and diplomatic events, etc.

I suppose I naturally avoid the gay stuff. Pretty much all the games I own are stat heavy. (Except The Soul Stone War, that's trash)

 

[Tyranicon]

I was also looking into this series thanks to Lithium Flower. I guess I'll have to get it now.

But yeah, text cyoa games are almost always better written than RPGs. I suppose that's the whole point.

Unfortunately most people are illiterate.

 

[Lithium Flower]

Yeah okay no problem now go vote in the thread you fembois.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

This game is a debt simulator.

 

[Tyranicon]

This game is a debt simulator.

It's alright. When the next installment comes in 5-6 years and we can finally recoup our investment from that gunmaker, we'll be thousandaires.

Spoiler

Also, one of the endings of the Lords is you literally become the third-in-command of the army. I think the player's going to be fine regardless of their debt.

 

[lightbane]

Moved to Adventure gaming, kek.

His earlier game Mecha Ace also blew me away. I really liked the ability to roleplay a proper warrior. My character declaring that he does not want the war to ever end, because war ennobles mankind, is still etched into my mind.

I found that one quite poor and unsure what it wants to be, as there are multiple pages at making fun of mecha tropes... And then enabling some of them anyway. Ie: There's an achievement for attempting to restore a broken hand through sheer force of willpower to mock you... But you CAN actually do that if you have max willpower. That ending IIRC ends you with becoming a sad, bitter pirate doomed to a painful death. You don't get a glorious death or anything. All of your teammates are bi, and some were inane, such as the Muslim psycho, who actually fights to protect his family and loathes war (???).
In fact, I ended up disliking most of Choice of "x" games as they seemingly went full woke. Choice of Robots was annoying as it had multiple "gotcha!" moments to force you to reload, and future titles didn't get much better. There was that one game where you played as a kitsune, and it looked like a Japanese tale written by someone reading a Japanese encyclopedia, with an extremely awkward encounter with a psychotic monster that you can still romance for reasons.

How is this trilogy regarding the "sudden death" moments?

 

[Tyranicon]

How is this trilogy regarding the "sudden death" moments?

Depends what your standards are. Seems on par with other CYOAs. If you die you'll reload back to the beginning of the chapter. Most of the time you'll know you made a mistake, and you basically only die during battle. I haven't run into a non-battle death yet.

How you do in combat is decided entirely on personal and unit stats. I'm pretty sure you can do the stupidest things and still survive if your stats are good enough. There was a part in the second game where I led a calvary unit, dismounted, in a charge against the elite and dreaded enemy heavy cavalry, still on horseback. I know from a previous playthrough with lower stats you get instantly merked.

Still won, true ROFLcopter moment. Or maybe I remembered wrong and I just survived. Whatever, hero of the kingdom, baby.

 

[Lithium Flower]

This game is a debt simulator.

Play your cards right in Guns and you can and end up with 0 Debt, ~10k+ Wealth, and a little PTSD once you start Lords.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

This game is a debt simulator.

Play your cards right in Guns and you can and end up with 0 Debt, ~10k+ Wealth, and a little PTSD once you start Lords.

Playing cards right is an interesting choice of words for murder, rape, and plunder. Are you a filthy Wulframite by any chance?


My character is content with a meager profit from his estate.

 

[Lithium Flower]

This game is a debt simulator.

Play your cards right in Guns and you can and end up with 0 Debt, ~10k+ Wealth, and a little PTSD once you start Lords.

Playing cards right is an interesting choice of words for murder, rape, and plunder. Are you a filthy Wulframite by any chance?


My character is content with a meager profit from his estate.

Spoiler

You just have to follow Katarina's orders during her secret mission, which allows you to capture Khoribirit's daughter. You need high unit stats and several correct decisions during that whole sequence. Best case scenario, your staff sergeant and batman Marion die. Its also possible to lose your entire command AFAIK if you fuck something up but not enough to fail, and the capture itself is reliant on either high soldiering, antari knowledge, or decent soldiering + knight armor. Its one of the least "war crimey" outcomes of that particular mission since you are just following orders to hold the courtyard as tasked. Killing the daughter, for instance, makes more sense politically, since you are denying the Antari a pissed-off heir, but that is a much more clear cut case of "what the fuck."

The ransom is massive enough that it fully nullifies your debt with thousands more wealth to spare. You can accomplish this on a character who otherwise does not commit any warcrimes or plunder. Comes with the downside of tanking your reputation with both Cunaris and his son, but the other lieutenants (if they survive) don't mind.

Alternatively, going into the keep saving the girl's mother from Lefebvre's antics is the more "good guy" outcome to that particular mission, since this ensures that both of Khorobirit's relatives survive (by default, daughter flees and mother gets killed,) and also nets you several thousand wealth from her ransom, without risking your unit or any of your major characters.

Katarina's mission in general is the higher-risk, higher reward branch of the ending chapter, arguably. Comes with the nice upside, AFAIK, that you don't lose any of the people who might otherwise die at Kharingia 2 (Welles/Lewes/Marcus/Hartigan.) Also, you might trigger a scene where Katarina fucks your brains out that also opens up interesting choices in Lords.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

Lithium Flower oooh, I know about that option, I just didn't know it gets you so much more money! I chose not to do it because I would rather avoid the losses.

 

[Readher]

Moved to Adventure gaming, kek.

His earlier game Mecha Ace also blew me away. I really liked the ability to roleplay a proper warrior. My character declaring that he does not want the war to ever end, because war ennobles mankind, is still etched into my mind.

I found that one quite poor and unsure what it wants to be, as there are multiple pages at making fun of mecha tropes... And then enabling some of them anyway. Ie: There's an achievement for attempting to restore a broken hand through sheer force of willpower to mock you... But you CAN actually do that if you have max willpower. That ending IIRC ends you with becoming a sad, bitter pirate doomed to a painful death. You don't get a glorious death or anything. All of your teammates are bi, and some were inane, such as the Muslim psycho, who actually fights to protect his family and loathes war (???).
In fact, I ended up disliking most of Choice of "x" games as they seemingly went full woke. Choice of Robots was annoying as it had multiple "gotcha!" moments to force you to reload, and future titles didn't get much better. There was that one game where you played as a kitsune, and it looked like a Japanese tale written by someone reading a Japanese encyclopedia, with an extremely awkward encounter with a psychotic monster that you can still romance for reasons.

How is this trilogy regarding the "sudden death" moments?

"Choice of" label has heavy content guidelines which make the games extremely formulaic and "checkboxy" in design. The older games don't suffer too much from that, and sometimes you get a game that shomehow manages to escape the formula even now, but most of them are just neoliberal goyslop.

Hosted Games have very minimal guidelines, so the quality varies a lot, but it's where you get the actual gems.

As far as Japan games go, Tokyo Wizard is pretty good, I guess. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's fun and has some C&C (mostly during the ending, though).

Spoiler

There's an old guy who shapeshifts into a Korean slut in order to wrap you around his finger and steal your power. Or at least he did in my playthrough.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

I found that one quite poor and unsure what it wants to be, as there are multiple pages at making fun of mecha tropes... And then enabling some of them anyway. Ie: There's an achievement for attempting to restore a broken hand through sheer force of willpower to mock you... But you CAN actually do that if you have max willpower. That ending IIRC ends you with becoming a sad, bitter pirate doomed to a painful death. You don't get a glorious death or anything. All of your teammates are bi, and some were inane, such as the Muslim psycho, who actually fights to protect his family and loathes war (???).

How is this trilogy regarding the "sudden death" moments?

Huh, I don't even remember the muslim character. I didn't romance or make friends with anyone really, so maybe I missed that. I just beat the shit out of your bridge captain or whatever rank it was. I got the pirate ending on my first playthrough, but it was a deliberate choice of my character to betray his own faction to ensure that the war goes on eternally.

Honestly, I've played through Choice of Robots multiple times and never died in a gotcha moment. In fact, my most memorable playthrough is the one where I thought it's over, when I got bankrupt and moved in with my mom, but managed to turn things around. There's many nuances that are easy to miss and hard to replicate.

In fact, I ended up disliking most of Choice of "x" games as they seemingly went full woke. Choice of Robots was annoying as it had multiple "gotcha!" moments to force you to reload, and future titles didn't get much better. There was that one game where you played as a kitsune, and it looked like a Japanese tale written by someone reading a Japanese encyclopedia, with an extremely awkward encounter with a psychotic monster that you can still romance for reasons.

As Readher mentioned above, games using the ChoiceScript are divided into two categories: Choice of Games and Hosted Games. Choice of Games quite literally proclaims itself to be egalitarian and the authors must include different sexual orientations. The content cannot be too grim either. There is a notable exception of Choice of Rebels, which includes themes of slavery, aristocracy, ritual murder, and so on. The only reason it is in Choice of Games is because it's an old series, which predates the strict guidelines.

Hosted games is where all the fun and rape is at. This category allows the author to write pretty much anything.

How is this trilogy regarding the "sudden death" moments?

Well, there's only one point in the entire series at which I have died. You just have to know your character and what he's good at. I reckon the stat checks get a bit more lenient as the series progresses. Sabers is the game that encourages min-maxing the most.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

Also, whoever moved this into Adventure Gaming is a mentally handicapped monkey incapable of logical reasoning.

I find it most peculiar that Disco Elysium sits in the RPG section when 95% of skills and stats are just flavor dialogue. The story ends the same way no matter what you do. Ask yourself this, fellow Codexers, would this series have been moved into Adventure Gaming if the content was exactly the same as it is now, but it had graphics? If the only difference was that you used your mouse to move around and initiate dialogue? Clearly, it would be considered a fucking RPG. Hell, it wouldn't even require moving graphics. Just pictures are enough to satisfy the feeble mind of a Codex staff member. Yet another example.

Apparently, a game cannot be considered an RPG unless it has fancy visuals. God forbid that it uses just text. Oh my, the unimaginable horror of reading.

Now if you'll excuse me, I am off to play Skyrim, I can't wait for the true RPG experience. Will I spam sword attack, bow attack, or spell attack? Wow, the never-ending ROLEPLAYING possibilities of Skyrim are truly ENDLESS.

 

[lightbane]

Huh, I don't even remember the muslim character. I didn't romance or make friends with anyone really, so maybe I missed that. I just beat the shi

Perhaps it was Muslim, I'm not sure, but I think he was. It was still dumb as most of your teammates weren't noteworthy, probably because they have to be killed at any time, Gundam style, but in Gundam most characters had time to be fleshed out.

Honestly, I've played through Choice of Robots multiple times and never died in a gotcha moment.

There are many, such as near the end in one of the ending paths, in a gas station, you can be ambushed by the creep that tries to kill you during the game, that you must kill as otherwise he keeps escaping and attacking you again like a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain. If you don't have a super high Humanity score, most choices other than getting into the car insta-kill you. And then you have to start from the beginning to boot.

fact, my most memorable playthrough is the one where I thought it's over, when I got bankrupt and moved in with my mom, but managed to turn things around. T

Happened to me too. The business aspect was weak, and your CEO friend didn't hesitate to backstab you at the first opportunity, then come and whine to you when he realizes that mass producing war machines kills people.

As Readher mentioned above, games using the ChoiceScript are divided into two categories: Choice of Games and Hosted Games. C

It wasn't always like this. Choice of games' decay was a gradual process. Hosted games can also be quite bad too. Zombie Exodus had a shit ending.

 

[Tyranicon]

-reads discussion about the decline of text games-

Yes, yes very interesting. Now can we discuss the pressing issue of how the Inifinity series is filled with dick-thirsting sluts, and how we're not able to fuck them enough?

The player character needs a stat for his giant blue balls at this point.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

Yes, yes very interesting. Now can we discuss the pressing issue of how the Inifinity series is filled with dick-thirsting sluts, and how we're not able to fuck them enough?

I assume you are talking about officer CENSORED who decided to switch gender mid-game and was suddenly referred to as "she", despite the fact women do not even serve in the Tierran army. Am I the only one who noticed that? Am I going crazy?

 

[Tyranicon]

Yes, yes very interesting. Now can we discuss the pressing issue of how the Inifinity series is filled with dick-thirsting sluts, and how we're not able to fuck them enough?

I assume you are talking about officer Garret who decided to switch gender mid-game and was suddenly referred to as "she", despite the fact women do not even serve in the Tierran army. Am I the only one who noticed that? Am I going crazy?

Ooh I would probably spoiler that. The trilogy is remarkably buggy for text games but it's revealed in Lords

Spoiler

that Garret is actually a woman in deep undercover for the crown.

Maybe your playthrough bugged out and skipped over the reveal for some reason.

But yeah in the entire trilogy there is like one way for a proper man of honor to get his dick wet, and the books cover like 15 years or something. Two if we don't care about the sanctity of marriage.

I just mind-canon railing Antari whores left and right. Maybe that's why my health is at 40% for no reason.

Although, I haven't 100% the games yet, so maybe there are more options.

 

[Optimist]

Yes, yes very interesting. Now can we discuss the pressing issue of how the Inifinity series is filled with dick-thirsting sluts, and how we're not able to fuck them enough?

I assume you are talking about officer Garret who decided to switch gender mid-game and was suddenly referred to as "she", despite the fact women do not even serve in the Tierran army. Am I the only one who noticed that? Am I going crazy?

Spoiler

Wasn't Garret operating in drag, as Queen's eyes and ears? Switching pronouns would make sense for a situation where the PoV character suddenly becomes aware of someone's actual sex.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

Hm, maybe I just read past the reveal. Though I would assume that it would take up a considerable amount of text. Surely it wasn't just two lines. Who knows, maybe I am blind.